"Disappearances Can Be Decieving." Part Three Mid 1989 AD, that is, Early 2364 Galactic Year [Beelzebub (continued)] Nomad quickly ran to it and said, "Its the trap locator device. It has found a nuclear waste trap directly in front of us. We must disarm the trap before we proceed." Captain R/c, Master of Puppets, and Beelzebub started walking towards the dome. After walking about sixty feet, Nomad yelled, "Stop! Its right in front of you!" He came running up with some brooms and said, "Sweep the dirt away!" And they did so. As the dirt was whisked away, the ground was revealed to be metal. Once they cleared the whole area the metal plate covered, they saw... [Nomad of Norad] ...that the plate was a trapdoor made of solid lead. It seemed pretty thick. "That trapdoor is apparently a spoilsport device," said Nomad, looking at the main screen on his scanning deep-probe equipment. "It is designed to drop open if power coming from the dome is cut, say, if we disabled the defense systems. It would have exposed us to enough fissionables to make us all glow in the dark!" "Whoa! What are we gonna do!" said Thx. "Very simple," said Nomad, with a big crafty smile on his face and pointing to another device piled up next to the probe equipment. "We'll weld the sucker shut!" Dr D and Thx went and got the welding torch and took care of the trapdoor. "Now," said Nomad, pointing to a place on the display screen before him. "This power conduit leads to the kilozap gun at the entrance," he pointed to a different part of the display, "and this conduit leads to the kilozap gun inside the entrance. With a strong laserblast on the right spot on the dome, we should be able to disable the first gun, then we'll deal with the second from just inside the entrance." * * * Back down southward, two figures continued to walk towards the Hex, many miles ahead of them. A strange figure came flying from the distance, a figure in a globule of light. It came from the south and was heading north like our two heroes. The figure slowed as it spotted the Mongra, and then the two persons it followed, and then the figure changed course and came in to land beside the two men. "Hello, I am the High Mage Verilox, and one of you must be the Mage Pladgah." "Yeah," said Pladgah, "I am Pladgah. I see my reputation has spread." "Well, word about you, anyway," said Verilox. "Where are you headed?" "To CommHex Castle," said Dornji. "All that way on foot?" asked Verilox. "It will take more than a month!" Pladgah glared at Dornji. Hadn't he said two and a half days? "I could get you there in a matter of moments," offered Verilox. Pladgah and Dornji exchanged glances. "Sure!" both said in unison. "Ok, here goes." Verilox surrounded them both in his magical globule and all three rose into the sky and shot forward at great speed. The Mongra followed as best and as fast as it could, but was soon left behind. Something rattled in the back of Dornji's mind about Verilox, he wondered where he'd heard that name before... -< Back at the dome... >- Dr D pulled a small ion cannon out of his doctors bag. "What on earth is a doctor doing with a gun?" asked Nomad. "Some guy gave it to me as payment for my medical help." Dr D was shrugging indifferently. Nomad was shrugging indifferently. "Well, set it up." Dr D folded down the mini fold-up stand and then anchored the mini cannon in the sand. He aimed carefully where Nomad indicated, and fired. Sparks flew from the side of the dome, and a hole appeared. Nomad, glancing at the screen beside him, looked up and flashed an OK sign. "Ok," said Nomad, "now lets try for the second gun, inside... and, BE CAREFUL!" Dr D uprooted his gun and he and Thx went to the door. Dr D took careful aim and fired. More sparks flew, and again Nomad signed the okay. "Now," said Nomad, "the front defense is down, but there are probably still some little surprises left. I have detected what appears to be the main control circuit for the defense system. It is in the center of the dome. R/C? Did you bring that r/c tank?" "I did," said Cappy, pulling it out of his backpack. "Good," said Nomad. "Well send it inside and blast the panel, and hope there isn't a backup system!" -< Meanwhile... >- Meanwhile, the three guys (plumbing?) flew faster than a jet towards the Land of CommHex. "I hope we can get there before they enter the dome," said Verilox, "I've got the feeling their gonna need us once there!" But they didn't know that the Hexians where already well on their way to getting in, forgetting that the owner of that dome was going to notice it, and wasn't someone easy to fight! Only someone like Verilox, or maybe Pladgah, could! -< So... >- [Captain R/C (modified)] "Doctor!" yelled Flip. "...shhh!! I'm busy!" snapped Dr Depraved. "I'm aiming this blasted Ion Cannon!!" "But Deprave!!!!" "...SHHH!" "Shouldn't you aim it at the gun that's aimed at us??!" screamed Flip hysterically. "I know what I'm doi.... wha? What gun!!" The gun's two barrels sparked to life with a red glow. Two wide beams of energy shot over Dr.D's head. The heat from the rays alone was enough to burn some of the nearby shrubbery. (Too bad they were in a desert. No bushes!) Depraved gripped his cannon and wheeled it around towards the other gun. The damage on the dome was closing up slowly, obviously regenerating and repairing itself. The gun swiveled on its base and adjusted its bearing slightly. Dr. Depraved knew he had one shot. But.... Just before Depraved pulled the trigger on his powerful cannon, the gun barrels retracted and the gun moved along it's track to other places in the dome. The hole was almost completly healed now, which may have been why the gun had left it's station. "Doctor! KEEP IT OPEN!!!" Yelled Nomad. Depraved fired several shots onto the dome. Again, sparks flew and smoke covored the terrain. The force screen at the door went down. Doctor Depraved grabbed the gun and ran through the door to attack the mobile gun. The rest of the group followed suit, except Nomad and R/C who remained to man the probes and equipment previously sent through the dome. Several seconds later the whole group, save R/C and Nomad, were through the shield as the hole healed through. All was quiet outside now. Captain R/C and Nomad hoped for the best.... "I've lost communications!! I can't get a reading!!" yelled Nomad. "Me too!! The probes say they are...." "Go on..." said Nomad. He got a bad feeling... "Dead," they said in unison. "We got to do something!!!" yelled Nomad as he looked at the evil dome. "But what!!!" "Still got that camera drone working?" "Yeah... forgot about that." "See if you can find 'em, R/C!" The r/c vehicle quickly sparked to life inside the dome. It surveyed the area and relayed the picture to the six inch screen outsude the dome. It revealed shiny metallic surfaces throughout. The car appeared to be in the main room where the tubes... used to be!! "The tubes! They're gone!!" "Find the others! Where's the group!?" The r/c car searched on. R/C did his best to pilot the thing to the spot where the group had entered. Down the gleaming halls and curved floors, the vehicle finally came to the spot where the shield had been breached. Several pieces of machinery were lying on the ground and there were several blasted spots, presumably from Dr D's Ion Cannon, on the walls. Still, no sign of the Intrepid Group. "Where could they be!" asked R/C in a panic. "There! What's that?!" The camera panned the area and they saw Dr's ion pistol slide from behind a turn. Daggoth jumped into veiw, grabbed the ion cannon and ran back into what appeared to be a battle. "Here!" Yelled R/C, "Take the controls! I'll try and locate the tank!" Nomad steered the vehicle around the corner and into the battle scene. There, the group faced several of those guns on tracks, several already destroyed. A few seconds more and there was only one cannon left. It, however, was a strange one. Its metallic barrels were replaced with two radar dish type things and, among several other minor changes, was not mounted on a mobile track. All too soon, the 'gun' burst into several colors and the group covored their eyes. The probe's camera was blinded by a white light. "Something happened!!" yelled Nomad. Captain R/C turned and viewed the screen and turned his attention towards the dome. It, too, was glowing wildly. "I recognize this!!" said Nomad, "It's teleportation! Joshua used to always do this to me on April Fools day! He'd teleport me out of my own house and into my neighbor's shower! Durn computerz!" "Will it.... ... ." started R/C He was cut short. The world burst into a very bright light. R/C and Nomad felt themselves floating free in a void. Several other voices were heard. Flip's was one they clearly recognized. The bright light dimmed slightly, enough for the eyes to faintly see figures in the void. Now, the group had a falling sensation. "We.. are de... definatly being tel... teleport...ted!" strained Nomad. "H-.. how long.. does this ... ..l... " started Flip. Before Flip finished his sentence, the light snapped out and it was completly dark for about a halfa second. Every color of the spectrum flooded the group's eyes in a total of another half a second. Then it was quiet. Everyone's eyes were shut tight, except Nomad, who was used to teleportation. He looked around the desolate landscape. 'Nothing...' he thought. "Nothing! We're in the middle of a desert!! NOTHING!!!" The rest of the group slowly worked up the nerve to open their eyes. Indeed, they had been teleported straight into the middle of the Relihot desert. "We are in trouble, I suspect," noted Dr. D. "What's that??" asked Daggoth as he pointed to a shiny speck on the horizon. "I can't tell what that is!" said The Flip. "Well, no better place to go that I can see!" (Ed's N: Nomad: Do you know what THAT is?! Haha!) [Nomad of Norad] "Well," said Nomad, "at least it is something to head for. It could be the dome, the standard ground-based teleport has limited range. My teleport system could only send one a few hundred meters unless it was linked with someone else's teleport system." "You had a teleport?" asked Daggoth. "What else do you have? How can you afford all this stuff?" "I import and export things," Nomad said. "Technology comes in in trade for local products going out." "That's where the scanning equipment came from?" asked Dr D. "Yep. Actually, it's old equipment. Used to be mounted aboard a starship, but they upgraded." -< Meanwhile... >- The three flying figures arrived at the Hex. "We're here about the rumored dome," said Verilox to a passing pinhead, "the one with Jocko and others in it." The pinhead pointed towards the Keep. In the Keep they talked with Shamrock. "We came to help with the dome matter," said Verilox, "I have the feeling we will be needed. Strongly." "Well, the group is already at the dome---" began Shamrock. "What?!?" said Verilox. "They're already there? Where! Where is the dome! We could have little time!" "It's deep in the Relihot Desert." Shammy pulled out a map and pointed. "Here!" "Come on!" said Verilox, running out of the room. Pladgah and Dornji exchanged glances and quickly followed. -< Back in the desert... >- "It's not the dome," said Thx. "Yes," said Nomad. "Some kind of spacecraft... or what's left of one. Whew! I wonder who or what shot it down?" The craft was about twenty meters long, a big white hull with red trim. It was an elongated oblate spheroid with two warp engines above it on curved- back white pylons. Pock marks dotted the surface and the hull was ripped open. "Well," said Captain R/C, "let's see what's inside." "Yeah," said Nomad. He glanced back at the rest of the members of the group. "It'd better be just me and R/C. You guys'll stay outside, could be hazardous in there."